Home Made Eyes

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Thinking of starting to make my own eyes. I have the idea of molding but what is the best material used for the clear?looking for bubble free and nonyellowing. I know this subject has been talked before but im looking for some more options for a clean, clear eye. thanks guys Jamie

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I discovered by accident that properly mixed Etex can be made into a molded shape. I was coating some stones I had cut for Christmas gifts. I had laid them on a 'silicon' paper, non-stick. Some drops had formed off to the side. They had set up and were easily removed from the paper. They were clear. Color for the eye still needs to be done. I havent played with it yet. Whether to paint the eyes on the body and place the molded eye over it, or, paint on the back of the molded Etex eye. They still would have to be bonded to the body.

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Bog Baits advertises here. I have never seen prices as low as they have right now. I did go into the shop earlier and picked up a piece of Etex from a piece of release paper. It was soft, flexible. I may pour a drop on a prism ticker to see how it bonds. will put a black dot on prism paper first. Will let you know.

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If you had some type of small, colored plastic bead you could pour the E-Tex over it and it should look like a pupil. You could also add different color glitter to the E-Tex for even more interesting effects. You could probably find different color beads at a hobby store. Just a thought.

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Some days ago I had accidentally got into a Russian angling site , somewhere in their "homemade" section there were two or three pictures about homemade lure eyes .

One guy there just put equally sized drops of epoxy on the plated side of a CD blank and also put a (smaller) drop of some kinda black paint into their center to make up for the pupil .

On another photo there was the CD blank shown with some of the cured domed eyes been already peeled off , it looked like the CD plating would come off with them and stick to the back of the epoxy eye to make up for a silvery background ?

Sorry , that I can't provide more details , as that site was(naturally) in Russian language and the GOOGLE translator could not quite manage and I also did not bother reading over the(sort of) translated explanations deeply , as these most likely don't make much sense !

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Had another thought about this subject. What if you could find a flat sequin the size of the eye you were wanting and put your drop of E-Tex on top of the sequin. That should add a flashy background to your eye as well. Dang it. Now I'm wanting to try making some eyes.

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I dragged my butt to the shop this am and mixed up some Etex. A sequin, a textured? hammered? with the cup side up will hold a drop of Etex. It does have a hole in the center. Some need foil, red/silver, will not keep the drop in place. This release paper holds the drop right there, It is used in picture framing shops in the dry mount press. It is like a silicon paper. Just got home so I need to go check on the items. Seems the sequins cupped upward would need a hole put into the lure body to hide it lower.

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More ideas coming...Etex was still tacky and would not come off theat silcon paper. As I was sitting here watching the tube I thought of wax, using it as a mold. Scoop out some depressions for the Etex. Might work. And I have a 1/2 gallon of Calhoun plastic just sitting around, been a couple of years since I last stirred it even. Could use it for eyes but it would be hot coming from the microwave. A wax mold wouldnt hold up. Calhoun might dry cloudy.

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If you had some type of small, colored plastic bead you could pour the E-Tex over it and it should look like a pupil. You could also add different color glitter to the E-Tex for even more interesting effects. You could probably find different color beads at a hobby store. Just a thought.

RG

At our local dollar store they have bags of tiny glass beads in all kinds of colors. There are thousands of beads in each bag. (no holes in them which would cause a bubble to form).

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When the Etex releases from the silcon paper, it is clear all the way through. Even acts like a little magnifying glass too. Still needs to be epoxied to a bait, and that may cloud it unless epoxy is kept to the perimeter of molded eye.

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More ideas coming...Etex was still tacky and would not come off theat silcon paper. As I was sitting here watching the tube I thought of wax, using it as a mold. Scoop out some depressions for the Etex. Might work. And I have a 1/2 gallon of Calhoun plastic just sitting around, been a couple of years since I last stirred it even. Could use it for eyes but it would be hot coming from the microwave. A wax mold wouldnt hold up. Calhoun might dry cloudy.

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I was trying to go for a more custom eye , like a taxidermy eye. I think I have a start on trying something, I came across this looking through a wasco magazine. I dont know how link to the web page but type in www.taxidermy.com/eyes and scroll down and watch the video. I was thinking of molding a eye in rtv then ( so you will get the exact same eye instead of hand carving each one) after you mold and pour you will have an exact molding for the next step. Line the eyes up and try to v - form plastic to get a clear dome like in the video. Paint and seal like the video shows but at the end fill in with epoxy to make a solid eye. Do you guys think this will work? I know you can order hundreds of holographic eyes for little of nothing but its the custom eye that Im trying for.

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I think that the vacuum forming method would work well and is a good idea. I think the trimming operation after the forming operation could get a little tricky. A tool/jig could be made by carving out a concave eye shape in the end of a dowel. A small piece of double sided tape to hold the eye in position. Insert the eye blank, rough trim with snips then finish on a belt sander. The tool would also serve as a depth gauge.

Obviously the sander would take its toll on the wooden dowel tool, so a steel face plate would need to be added.

Do you really think that filling the eye would be necessary? No mention of this was made in the video. I can understand your thinking, an air bubble is going to be subject to expansion and contraction due to temperature fluctuations. I was thinking of a small hole behind the eye location, into the body, breaching the seal coat. This would allow any expansion to be vented back into the body, rather than stressing the eye seal.

Molding the eye shape is a good solution. Any small imperfections would not be visible after the vacuum operation, whereas molding eyes directly has to be perfect. You could probably vacuum form the eyes a hundred at a time. A tray of master castings for each size or mixed. Combining this idea with the thread on vacuum formed paint masks, this vacuum tool is going to get a lot of use.

Painting the inside of the eyes in reverse order looks like fun and you could get really creative.

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I think that the vacuum forming method would work well and is a good idea. I think the trimming operation after the forming operation could get a little tricky. A tool/jig could be made by carving out a concave eye shape in the end of a dowel. A small piece of double sided tape to hold the eye in position. Insert the eye blank, rough trim with snips then finish on a belt sander. The tool would also serve as a depth gauge.

Obviously the sander would take its toll on the wooden dowel tool, so a steel face plate would need to be added.

Do you really think that filling the eye would be necessary? No mention of this was made in the video. I can understand your thinking, an air bubble is going to be subject to expansion and contraction due to temperature fluctuations. I was thinking of a small hole behind the eye location, into the body, breaching the seal coat. This would allow any expansion to be vented back into the body, rather than stressing the eye seal.

Molding the eye shape is a good solution. Any small imperfections would not be visible after the vacuum operation, whereas molding eyes directly has to be perfect. You could probably vacuum form the eyes a hundred at a time. A tray of master castings for each size or mixed. Combining this idea with the thread on vacuum formed paint masks, this vacuum tool is going to get a lot of use.

Painting the inside of the eyes in reverse order looks like fun and you could get really creative.

Dave

I messed around with making eyes with limited success, try this, Get a round dremmel bit and make dome shapes in your wifes old cutting board from the kitchen.Fill dome shapes with etex or better yet flexcoat. Put a drop of paint on the flat side of eye when it s dried.

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I think that the vacuum forming method would work well and is a good idea. I think the trimming operation after the forming operation could get a little tricky. A tool/jig could be made by carving out a concave eye shape in the end of a dowel. A small piece of double sided tape to hold the eye in position. Insert the eye blank, rough trim with snips then finish on a belt sander. The tool would also serve as a depth gauge.

Obviously the sander would take its toll on the wooden dowel tool, so a steel face plate would need to be added.

Do you really think that filling the eye would be necessary? No mention of this was made in the video. I can understand your thinking, an air bubble is going to be subject to expansion and contraction due to temperature fluctuations. I was thinking of a small hole behind the eye location, into the body, breaching the seal coat. This would allow any expansion to be vented back into the body, rather than stressing the eye seal.

Molding the eye shape is a good solution. Any small imperfections would not be visible after the vacuum operation, whereas molding eyes directly has to be perfect. You could probably vacuum form the eyes a hundred at a time. A tray of master castings for each size or mixed. Combining this idea with the thread on vacuum formed paint masks, this vacuum tool is going to get a lot of use.

Painting the inside of the eyes in reverse order looks like fun and you could get really creative.

Dave

Dave, I was thinking of filling the eye because I fish for toothy critters and Im more worried about punctures. What I was thinking was I could get a quality color eye ( any color I want) with a custom look . I think this ,(if I can get it to work) , will help me take a custom bait to the next level. Not to mention you could make a custom eye for little of nothing and not have to wait for the mailman to bring you your eye. You mention forming a hundred at a time, thats why I wanted to mold them first in rtv, so I can pour as many as I want and line them up and secured them to a base. I think when you lift the plastic off the templet you would have a whole sheet with the eyes dimpled out. Then cut and trim the eye out. This is all just an idea and I need to get to work to see what I can make of this. I think for starters I will carve a couple eyes first and try( no need to waste rtv if I dont need to) to secure them to a base, just to work the bugs out first. I dont know if I need to make the master molded eyes deeper than I want or try to make them exact. Anybody out there tried this before, if so throw a dog a bone and give some input. Thanks guys Jamie

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Just had another thought on this. In the thread about vacuum forming I asked if you could use 2 liter plastic bottles for the source of plastic and I believe the reply was yes. If this is so you could use a mt dew 2 liter bottle which has a green tint to the bottle. You could have a clear and green lens for the eyes, just another thought.